This invention relates generally to the field of tattooing and tattoo machines. More particularly, the invention relates to an apparatus for securing the tube grip, which houses the needle bar and needle grouping, to the frame of a tattoo machine or intradermal injection device.
Tattoo machines necessarily break the skin of the subject during the tattooing process, causing a risk of the spread of infectious diseases such as Hepatitis, HIV and ADS. The standard in the industry therefore is to sterilize the tattoo machine before each use. In order to effectively and efficiently sterilize a tattoo machine, the components of the machine must be easy to remove, sterilize, and reassemble.
Prior art tattoo machines typically have a needle or needle grouping which extends through the tattoo machine frame and is driven by a motor to reciprocate linearly. A hollow cylinder or tube is attached to the tattoo machine frame and the needle grouping passes through the tube. A portion of the tube, often having a larger external diameter than the rest of the tube, has a gnarled outer surface. This portion is called a tube grip. The tube grip provides a gripable portion for the tattoo machine operator and also serves to guide the needle grouping and restrain lateral movement of the needle grouping. The tube grip and needle grouping must be removable to allow them to be cleaned and sterilized. On all modem tattoo machines, the tube grip is a removable part.
Existing tattoo machine technology employs several methods to secure the tube grip to the tattoo machine frame which tend to bend or crimp the cylindrical tube grip. The present apparatus available not only tend to damage the tube grip, but are slow to remove and reinstall, and apparatus with multiple small screws are difficult to sterilize.
A more recently developed method of attaching the tube to the frame is a split portion of the frame which partially encircles the tube and is tightened with a wing nut. Tattoo machines are covered with a light plastic bag during operation to avoid contamination or cross-contamination between the operator and subject. Not only are such bags often ripped by the protruding wing nut, but the tattoo machine is rendered less streamline by the frame extension, wing nut and bolt required. The wing nut type vice does not apply pressure evenly to the tube grip, and may result in bending or crimping of the tube grip.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a secure, easy to assemble and disassemble and streamlined apparatus for attaching the tube grip and the tube housing needles in a tattoo machine to the frame of the tattoo machine in a manner that improves on the methods currently employed by tattoo machines.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a screw tight tube vice frame comprising a frame, a compression nut, a compressible ferrule and a receiving piece and a tube adapted such that the tube housing at least one needle may be inserted in the receiving piece, the ferrule slipped over the tube, and the nut slipped over the tube and pushed up against the ferrule, then screwed onto the receiving piece such that the ferrule is compressed and grips and retains the tube without bending or crimping it.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a tube vice frame that allows rapid and easy removal of the tube grip, tube and needle groupings to allow for cleaning and sterilization. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a tattoo machine with a streamlined profile that is easily shrouded in plastic or other material without tearing the shroud.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for securing a tube grip to be secured to or removed from a tattoo machine frame with a simple twist of a nut.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing a screw tight tube vice frame that is efficient, inexpensive and creates a streamlined, easy to use vice frame on a tattoo machine which may be retrofitted to an existing tattoo machine.